Doing the right thing ... and being made a scapegoat for it Meanwhile, Inspector Elton Taliana assigned to B’Kara received another tip which led him to the real culprit. Taliana proceeded to the arrest and an interrogation which led to the suspect’s admission of guilt. Taliana presented his suspect in front of a Magistrate less than an hour after the interrogation and, even then, until repeated in Court, the accused could have withdrawn his admission. It was only after the accused re-affirmed his guilt in Court could the case be considered as closed. Following which Taliana duly informed the Court which was the legally-sanctioned way to set the ball rolling for Darryl Luke Borg’s release. What a fine piece of policing, you might think. But not for the Labour Government. Seeking to find a scapegoat for the ultimate PR mess, for some strange reason, ignored the CID’s role in putting an innocent man behind bars and instead rounded up on Taliana. The Police Board, safely membered with people connected to the Labour Party and the National Security Minister, was asked to investigate. The Board’s report makes for interesting reading. It glosses over the shoddy investigation which led to an innocent man’s incarceration with a “there will always be cases where individuals will be innocently suspected and arraigned”. It goes on to says that in cases like these one can only hope that “the judge’s due care (għaqal) would lead to acquittal” – like the police are not equally expected to practice "għaqal" in their investigations. This serves as only a little detour from picking on the official, subjects his actions to minute-by-minute analysis while ignoring the crucial point that the culprit was innocent until admitting guilt in Court. The report is wrapped up with a recommendation, made outside the Board’s terms of reference, for the Commissioner to take disciplinary action against Taliana.
Posted on: Sun, 08 Sep 2013 08:06:17 +0000